Jan. 6, 1912.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
25 
of us, or would he go to the decoys of some 
friends who were tied out in a little bay less 
than half a mile distant? They had gone there 
especially for geese and had eight or ten live 
goose decoys, besides a good number of wooden 
geese and some ducks, the whole making an im¬ 
posing show. The point where they had tied 
was commonly used at night by a flock of too 
or 200 geese and was also directly on a flyway 
between two large channels of Currituck 
Sound. 
The blackduck that was approaching, with true 
blackduck wisdom, steered a middle course, avoid¬ 
ing the party of goose shooters on the one hand 
and our blind on the other, and passing between 
the two, flew straight to the little long pond and 
disappeared in the cane that surrounded it. Only 
a little later, however, a pair of mallards came 
over the marsh high up and directly toward us, 
and seeing the decoys, lowered their flight to 
inspect them, but showed no signs of stopping. 
I fired both barrels at the pair, but ingloriously 
missed the drake and killed the duck. A little 
later a single blackduck came in absolutely un¬ 
suspicious, lowering its flight as it approached 
the decoys, until with down-curved wings and 
outstretched neck he hovered almost over them, 
standing quite still in the air, so that I suc¬ 
ceeded in killing him. 
Now followed a long wait, broken at last by 
the rising of a large swarm of geese in the 
southeast, disturbed no doubt by the passage of 
a boat. These geese extended north and south, 
I should think, for half a mile, and most of 
them flew north on the east side of the Sound. 
Several small bunches, however, turned north¬ 
west and approached our blind with apparently 
slow but really rapid flight. 
It was not to be supposed that they would 
come near enough to us to be shot at, but there 
was a prospect that they might go down to the 
goose shooters. Presently, as the distant birds 
approached, we could hear the clamor of their 
honking, and a little later, and much more dis¬ 
tinctly, the call of the boatman with the goose 
shooters, and then an outbreak of cries from 
their decoys. Slowly the foremost bunch of wild 
geese swung off in the wind, and gradually low¬ 
ering their flight turned toward the geese de¬ 
coys, but apparently too high in air to alight t6 
them without swinging once more. A moment 
later, however, I saw three geese tumble earth¬ 
ward from the flock, while the remaining birds 
laboriously climbed and flew away toward safety. 
Because of the wind I had not heard the shots 
that brought the geese down. The cane was of 
course so tall that the gunners were wholly con¬ 
cealed from us. 
There was another long wait. We had watched 
the horizon until our eyes were tired, and I was 
sitting down and beginning to doze when sud¬ 
denly in the air immediately above us sounded 
the loud hissing noise which the duck shooter 
recognizes as made by a bird dropping from high 
up in the air, and looking up I saw over the 
decoys and swinging away at lightning speed a 
widgeon that had dropped earthward, while away 
to the left were two others also going on, the 
three evidently having passed within shot dur¬ 
ing the period of careless relaxation. Certainly 
eternal vigilance is the price of getting shots 
from a blind in fair mild weather. 
It must have been near noon when a pair of 
mallards came in, and after making the circle 
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of the pond, always out of shot, alighted in the 
further end of it, and sat there with heads up, 
locking about. When they had first been seen, 
my boatman and I had sunk out of sight, and 
now we watched them through the cane, won¬ 
dering whether by any chance they might swim 
up to our decoys. I made up my mind that if 
they did so, I would slaughter them on the water 
without benefit of the clergy. 
For a little while they swam about alarmed, 
and more or less suspicious, and then the fe¬ 
male began to feed, while the drake scratched 
his head with his foot, preened his feathers, and 
lowering his beautiful head, began to move slow¬ 
ly toward us. The two came on very deliberately 
and in time would possibly have reached the de¬ 
coys, but fate had arranged that they should not 
be shot at on this occasion, for a pintail com¬ 
ing from the southeast had lowered to our de¬ 
coys, and though he showed no disposition to 
stop with them, he was within shot just before 
he passed over the blind, and I was lucky enough 
to kill him by one of those shots which are per¬ 
haps easy enough for those who know how to 
make them, but always difficult for me. The 
discharge of the gun of course sent the two mal¬ 
lards off with frightened quackings, and after 
the pintail had been retrieved, matters sett’ed 
down to dullness again. Lunch was eaten, and 
while this was going on there was a little stir 
among the fowl. I have often noticed that be¬ 
tween the hours of 12 and 2 o’clock there is 
frequently a small movemen of birds, though 
what causes it I do not know, nor do I know 
whether gunners generally have observed the 
same thing. I think it takes p’ace oftener than 
not, though I confess to a lack of definite ob¬ 
servation on the point. 
The afternoon wore away, a bird or two being 
killed occasional’y. The weather conditions were 
admirable for gunning, and it was hard to say 
why more birds were not moving about. About 
the middle of the afternoon a large flock of 
geese, flying rather low on account of the north¬ 
erly wind, were seen coming toward us. As they 
passed near the blind of the goose shooters they 
were vociferous in their replies to the calls of 
the decoy geese, but did not approach them, al¬ 
though they lowered their flight very consider¬ 
ably as they passed them to the eastward. 
My boatman and I were crouched out of sight 
and I had put into my big gun some cartridges 
of B shot. On and on the birds came directly 
toward us, and as they were passing a little to 
the west, and just about a gunshot off, I gave 
them both barrels and two geese dropped out 
of the flock and fell on the water with a re¬ 
sounding splash. This was the last interesting 
shot of the day; in fact, I may say the last in¬ 
teresting shot of the trip. After this day came 
the tropical weather and at last I returned home 
feeling that my excursion had been a failure. 
The passage of the Bayne bill, which prohibits 
the sale of game in New York, promises to in¬ 
flict much hardship on these market gunners of 
North Carolina—and of course of other locali¬ 
ties—who have always heretofore depended for 
a winter income on the shooting of wildfowl. 
It is true that Philadelphia, Baltimore and 
Chicago are still large markets for wildfowl, 
but after all it was on the markets of New York 
city that the gunners chiefly depended, and the 
agents who purchase ducks from the individual 
collectors have either ceased to buy altogether, 
or else offer prices very much below those which 
usually apply in the markets along the shore. 
These local gunners believe that Northern 
sportsmen are in some degree responsible for 
the passage of this law, and this has created 
much bitterness of feeling. As is natural, these 
men consider only the hardship to themselves. 
They do not know that on Long Island there is 
a large population of market gunners that have 
to endure the same hardships as the North Caro¬ 
linians. They do not consider that the New York 
market men complain, that hotels and restaurants 
are affected, nor do they consider the possible 
far-reaching consequences of the law. They 
